Greek problems at Duquesne University
 

I am new to this site but I would like to start a thread about the decline of Greek fraternities and sororities at Duquesne University. Recruitment this year and last year is way down and the fraternities are very small. Alot of the sororities were kicked off their wings to half wings or no wings.

If anyone out there is interested in talking about the greek system at DU I am all ears. :eek:

By "Wings" I am assuming you mean their housing situation?

Did the organizations loose their wings because of the decline of membership or because of other factors? If it is a numbers issue, you might want to take it up with your office of Greek Life.

Thanks for responding MaggieXi! I've been out of DU for about 4 years and what I am hearing from friends in my chapter as well as in other chapters is that the wing housing was being forced on the fraternities and sororities. Alot of people want to live on the southside and not be forced to live in Towers. Duquesne tried to force the girls and guys to live on the wings and it got nasty...yelling and screaming at members and at greek life office.

But it seems to be a systemstic decline in all areas of greek life not just because of housing.

DUgrad, fill us in on more detail regarding the decline of Greek Life @ DU....
- What seems to be the problem?
- Is the DU student population not interested in Greek Life?
- Is there any negative attidude towards Greek Life?
- Has the local IFC, NPC and other Greek Councils did any research as to why the recruitment numbers were low...last year and this year?
-Is the University not supportive to Greek Life and want to begin the elimination of the Greek Life @ DU?
- Is space/location (housing) a problem?

These are just some questions that come to mind.

People don't want to do things for their fraternity or sorority anymore...the concept of living in the housing as a responsibility to the GLO is going to the wayside. 2 sororities at Clarion don't have their houses anymore and I think it's partly because of this.

But honestly, if the housing is creating that much of a drama, it's better to let it go or reduce it. The school has to fill the housing and if people don't want to live there the school might force the cost onto the fraternities/sororities as a whole.

DUGrad - are you still around here? I honestly think a lot of it has to do with the rising costs of everything (I don't even want to think about what y'all's tuition is now) with less disposable money for dues and the fact that the South Side has pretty much turned into part of the campus, it's so full of college students and particularly Duq students. (I'm guessing that some bars whose names I won't mention aren't being very careful w/ the IDing either.) Combine this w/ the fraternities and sororities cracking down on risk management and there you go.

For the unknowing - the South Side is the area in Pittsburgh where there's a bar every 2 feet. I look for it to soon implode under the weight of the college students because they all come down there now instead of staying near their campuses, and the people who have been going to the SS for the last 20-30 years are getting sick of it.

And also for the unknowing, Duquesne is a Catholic university.

I live in upstate New York. What I can say is that after talking with a lot of my sisters that there has been a systematic removal of fraternities and sororities at DU. It started with the local frats, then local sororities. Yes, there was a sorority that had a sister die from alcohol poisoning.

But, IFC and NPC have the numbers and the last two years DU has brought in the largest freshmen classes and had the smallest number of people go through recruitment. I think they should ask the students on campus why they aren't pledging a frat or sorority. Maybe they don't want this information out?!

Until they ask the students at DU why they aren't pledging I guess no one will know why the numbers are so low.

Housing has been a big issue over the last couple of years and yeah, the southside is one big party for the DU students.

Locals are getting tossed out at a lot of places because they don't have a national org to back them up if anything goes wrong. If they don't have a strong alumni corp behind them, they are pretty much done.

The school could care less why people aren't pledging, unless alumni donations decline considerably.

And I'm not exaggerating when I say however it was on the SS when you were here - multiply it by about 100. It's changed that much (i.e. the college scene has expanded that much) in that short of time.

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But, IFC and NPC have the numbers and the last two years DU has brought in the largest freshmen classes and had the smallest number of people go through recruitment. I think they should ask the students on campus why they aren't pledging a frat or sorority. Maybe they don't want this information out?!

You say that DU has brought in a large freshman class, was it ever discussed by the IFC/NPC and the University to advertise "Greek Life" in general inside the freshman orientation packages. I know several universities in NY & NJ are allow to advertise during orientation. It worth looking into doing something like this. What the IFC/NPC needs is to spark the interest back in Greek Life.

Devodude,

Its a great idea to put info about IFC/NPC in orientation packages. I will suggest that to my sisters.

Another issue that came from one of my sisters was something about housing. I didn't quite understand it but she told me that the Greek Life offices and Dean of Students were making them pay for things on their wings like paint, carpet, plaster, etc. If that is true, we were never asked to do that. Maybe things are really different from when I was there. That might be the reason so many are moving to the southside.

As someone who went to high school in a Pittsburgh suburb, I can tell you that a lot of it has to do with a decline in greek life in general in the north east (especially in the burgh).

There, most frats/sororities have declined to the point where it's simply a social thing (like big parties, etc.). When I went home after pledging and told people I joined a sorority, they looked at me like I was crazy. As one person put it: "why pay money to go out and party with people when you can go to a bar for free/only pay a small cover?"

Also, DU (and all the other schools around, like Pitt, CMU, and even Carlow) are becoming increasingly difficult to get in/difficult to succeed academically. Possibly people aren't pledging b/c they feel that they can't handle their course load plus greek life??

Just a few thoughts I have on that.

That's true; it was a little presumptuous to say that NE greek life is declining. But in my experience (or at least, what I gather from talking to my friends from high school), it is becoming less popular, for multiple reasons (social, fiscal, time commitments, negative press, stereotypes, etc.).

I would think Duquesne also would have problems with greek life because it has a fairly large commuter population.

And many of the students who do live on campus go home to their parents' houses in the Pittsburgh suburbs for the weekend!

kddani,

I was not from Pittsburgh originally but having gone to DU for 4 years you are right that everyone seems to go home on weekends. I think that is a bit weird but I watched it go on year after year.

You are required at DU to live on campus your freshman and sophomore years so even though there is a large commuter population you would think that people would stick around on weekends. Instead the partying goes on over on the southside and the campus is empty.

Of course, if the greeks are getting bullied by the adminstration like on housing then why should anyone join? I still think they should ask the whole student body why they aren't joining a greek group. Maybe that would get things out in the open and they could fix things.

It sounds like Greek Life at DU needs some serious PR. Maybe consider doing some all greek events in the fall (like an all greek BBQ or fall fest) just to make the Greeks visible. It seems like your saying that all the GLOs are facing difficulties. Maybe if all the GLOs can ban together, like Greek Life should be promoting, the unity may bring more interest. Also, one thing that my alma mart used to do (and possibly still does) was every wednsday the organizations would wear their letters or t-shirts all day to classes. This made the greeks very visible!

I just received a long email from one of my sisters who is currently living on the southside and what is happening at DU. They are on spring break so she was able to give me some answers to the questions everyone has been asking.

She said that housing at DU was a horrible mess this year. Greek groups were sent a memo that was vague and didn't tell them what they needed to know about greek housing. That led to almost everyone losing their full wing housing..I think she said maybe one or two have a full greek wing housing contract.

Greek Life didn't help them with the problem nor did Panhellenic so each group just did what they thought was right. Then, dean of students got upset because the wings were not filled. They all started to yell at each other. She said everyone is demoralized, angry, pissed off, etc. Some are starting to rethink why they decided to go greek in the first place.

Also, they said greek life office demands so much of them that they can't get their studying done. If you don't show up they yell at your group for things and check to see who was there/not there at things that should be fun.

Carnival is stuck in Palumbo this year for just a day or two and none of the greek groups were told much until the last minute. Its been thrown together and they still have to do some cleanup thing on the southside the same day.

It seems like it is a bunch of different issues all coming together at the same time.